World’s oldest person dies at the age of 121

Gaışhıkaan sıhıkaan, who is believed to have been the oldestperson in the world, passed away at the age of 121 after a brief illness at her home in Manisa's salihli district on Monday evening.

After her neighbor noticed that Sıhıkaan was in physical pain, she called the emergency services. When a medical team arrived they found that she had already lost her vital functions.

The funeral was held on Tuesday. Hüsnü Tuğrul, the head of the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) Salihli branch, attended the funeral. Sıhıkaan's body was buried in the Asri Cemetery in Manisa.

Ergün Kerey (24), Sıhıkaan's great-grandchild, said: “She would tell us about events of a hundred years ago in such a way that would make us feel like we were living them. The doctors performed a cranial CT scan and were shocked by what they discovered. The doctors told us that her brain had functioned like that of an 18-year-old girl.”

Sıhıkaan was born in Turkistan in 1890, but immigrated to Pakistan some time later. She moved from Pakistan to India, where she lost her husband and five children to an epidemic illness. In 1953 she immigrated to Turkey's Manisa.

She became a Turkish citizen in 2011 and, with her date of birth now official, became eligible to hold the title of “world's oldest person,” which was formerly held by US citizen Eunice Sanborn, who died at the age of 115 on Jan. 15, 2011.